The Coolest Toys of Toy Fair 2017

The annual New York Toy Fair offers look at the great gadgets, collectables, and, yes, toys that are coming out this year. Coming in 2017 are BB-8s, giant Transformers, excellent Lego sets, and more. Here are our favorite things from Toy Fair 2017.

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An Etch a Sketch that can actually draw a circle

Only true Etch a Sketch masters can repeatedly execute the fine art of the continuous line, but maybe not for much longer. The new Etch a Sketch Junior is (obviously) marketed towards kids, but even would-be adult artists will appreciate its new control mechanism. With a physical joystick, the Etch a Sketch Junior gives you full one-to-one control of the cursor, for a drawing experience that's a little easier to wrap your head around. Whether that's the best thing even or takes all the fun out of it is up to you to decide. The Etch A Sketch Junior is out this fall for $13.

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A Lego Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle may be gone from the skies, but now you can add it to your Lego collection. The new Space Shuttle Explorer kit is part of the Lego Creator line, which means the bricks can be assembled into three different space-related models including a moon buggy and a space-base, but the Space Shuttle gets top billing. Complete with a wrench-wielding astronaut minifig, the kit will be available for $30 this August.

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A cheap, durable, FPV drone

Professional drone racers use expensive, custom-made quadcopters and even more expensive first-person-view headsets. But if you want to try out FPV racing without shelling out damn near $1,000 to get started, Spin Master's Air Hogs DR1 FPV Race Drone looks like a great solution.

This durable drone can hold up to some rough landings and has a camera right on its nose for first-person flying. Instead of a dedicated headset, the drone pairs up with your phone which slips into a face-mounted holder, Google Cardboard style. The result is eye-in-the-sky flying just like the pros, but without having to build your own setup. The Air Hogs DR1 FPV Race Drone will be available this fall for $100

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A giant transformer that's a T-Rex, a spaceship, and a city

Transformers run the gamut from tiny to gigantic, and the new "Trypticon" toy from Hasbro definitely lands on the large end of the scale. In his T-Rex mode, Trypticon can actually devour smaller Transformer toys whole and store them in its stomach. The largest Decepticon toy made (so far) Trypticon will be available in the fall for $150.

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A big ol' remote control BB-8

There are no shortage of BB-8s, from the miniature Sphero toy to bigger fan-made versions. But the newest RC ballbot from Spin Master just might be the closest you can get to the real thing. At two-thirds scale and powered by two rechargable batteries—one in the head and one in the ball—this BB-8 model is both big and fully operational, with modes that let it automatically follow a beacon built into its controller or a direct-control RC mode. This big ol' BB-8 buddy will be available this fall for $230.

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Classic Star Wars characters in classic packaging

If the new Star Wars movies have you nostalgic for the good old days of the original trilogy, you've got a second chance to scoop up all the action figures you never got for Christmas as a kid. The 40th Anniversary collection from Hasbro is made up of all your favorite characters from Episode IV: A New Hope—Luke, Leia, Han and the like—in 6-inch, posable form, but also in classic packaging. Available for $20 a piece this fall (right before Episode VIII) these figures look great in or out of packaging.

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A programmable robot made out of Legos

You're probably familiar with Lego Mindstorms, the Lego robotics platform used to build sophisticated gadgets like Rubik's Cube solvers out of Lego Technic pieces. Now, Lego is putting out a platform called Boost, which works with normal Lego blocks and a more basic coding interface to help get even younger kids in on the joy of programming. The Boost kit comes with blocks that can be used to build 5 different devices, including a robot, a cat, and an electric guitar. Each one is programmed and controlled by an app installs on both Android tablets and iPads that let kids drag and drop simple icons to program their creation's every move and reaction. Lego Boost will be available for $160in the second half of 2017.

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